CBT World Congress: 1st conference day - chronotherapy, sleep, PTSD, bipolar disorder, and emotions
18th July 2019
I wrote yesterday about a pre-conference workshop I attended on "Reimagining CBT for depression" with Keith Dobson. Today is the first of the three full days of the '9th World Congress of Behavioural & Cognitive Therapies' conference proper. They aren't taking any prisoners ... each day runs from 8.30am to …
CBT World Congress: 'Reimagining CBT for major depression', Keith Dobson workshop
17th July 2019
I'm at the '9th World Congress of Behavioural & Cognitive Therapies' in Berlin. As is routine with these kinds of events, the day before is taken up with pre-conference workshops. There are 31 of them! 18 are full-day and the rest half-day. A lot of choice. I've gone for "Reimagining …
Strength training exercises improve both physical & psychological health
5th May 2019
Poor muscle strength predicts increased vulnerability to both physical & psychological health problems and earlier death, in addition to the contribution of poor aerobic, heart-lung fitness. This is true for both men & women and for all assessed age ranges. Mechanisms underlying these effects are probably multifactorial, including metabolic/biochemical, neurological …
Psychedelics and end of life distress
26th April 2019
I've been asked to write a short book section on "Psychedelics and dying" and that has nudged me into looking at this territory here on the blog. It's a fascinating subject in all kinds of ways. With the limited space I have, I'd like to comment briefly on four overlapping …
Recent research: articles from winter/spring journals
21st April 2019
I read a lot of research. When I find an article of particular interest I download it to my bibliographic database - Endnote - which currently contains well over 27,000 abstracts. I also regularly tweet about emerging research, so following me on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ (click on the relevant …
Recent psychedelic research: lessons from current personal experience - suggestions
29th March 2019
Sapere aude! Dare to use your own intelligence! This is the battle cry of the Enlightenment. Immanuel Kant I have recently described my experiences taking a couple of (legal) psilocybin trips in the Netherlands - see "Lessons from current personal experience - introduction" and "Lessons from current personal experience - …
Recent psychedelic research: lessons from current personal experience - description
28th March 2019
God-speed ... To heart-opened light-burst ... Love-drenched ... Out-breath, walls melt To the tender darkness ... Mithril to wings. Willie Grieve (a friend sending good wishes for the journey). Surrendering ... to liquid night ... Welcoming dissolution A path of music ... To love's lessons ... In a sky of …
Recent psychedelic research: lessons from current personal experience - introduction
24th March 2019
Gosh, 'nerves' have come in a bit sooner than I would have expected. Lying in bed this morning, early, I felt that hard-to-describe collection of sensations ... quite a full, slightly aching feeling in my chest, and in my belly also a background sense of fullness ... and unease, caution …
Psychotherapy with couples & other close relationships
28th January 2019
Over the next two days I'm due to run a two day training workshop in Glasgow on "Psychotherapy with couples & other close relationships". Here are the downloadable slides for the first day on "Working with couples" (sadly with the cartoons removed for copyright reasons) and here the slides for …
Recent psychedelic research: further exploration
18th January 2019
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." Marcel Proust "There isn't any formula or method. You learn to love by loving - by paying attention and doing what one thereby discovers has to be done." Aldous Huxley This is the ninth …